Asus Fonepad 8 tablet with 3G now available for Rs. 13999

Asus has launched Fonepad 8 tablet with Wi-Fi and 3G support for Rs. 13,999. This is a dual SIM tablet powered by Intel quad core processor and it’s running Android KitKat over an 8 inch screen.

Asus Fonepad 8 as the same suggest is with an 8 inch screen (IPS, LED backlight) supporting 1280 x 800 (WXGA) resolution with 10 point multi touch. There are dual Micro SIM slots with dual standby mode. Users can use the tablet for voice calling and 3G (42Mbps).

There is an auto focus camera on the rear with a 5 megapixels resolution but without LED flash support and a front camera too of 2 megapixels resolution. Rear camera can shoot 720p videos. Key features are Wi-Fi (b/g/n), 3G with voice calling, 2G, Miracast, GPS GLONASS + A-GPS and Bluetooth 4.0. There is light, proximity, magnetic and hall sensor.

Tablet weight is 310 grams and it is 8.9mm thick. The battery mAh is not known but as per the company it will give about 12 hours of continuous usage or 21 hours talk time on 3G / 600 hours 3G standby on a full charge.

There might be some doubt about the correct specifications. The international edidition of the tablet launched last year had only 1 gb of RAM. And over the Internet, some sources mention it as 1 gb and others as 2 gb. Of course, this device could be a new launch for India with slightly jacked up specs(mainly the RAM) of the old device. But it needs to be confirmed. Flipkart sometimes get the specs wrong.

By the way, the battery capacity is said to be 4000 mah and is supposed to give 12 hours of continuous video playback.

Depends on what you need, if you need to bigger screen phone to fit your pocket go for Z ultra, else go for Lenovo S8 as it’s 8″ and Z Ultra is 6.4″. If I need a tab, I would go for S8. BTW both supports 4G LTE Z ultra was launched in 2013 and S8 was launched just 3 months back latest !! 🙂

One of the most important criteria is updates. The Xperia Z Ultra is definitely getting the Lollipop Update(both a 5.0 and 5.02 update has already been rolled out for selected devices) The other two are not sure but an update is highly likely for the Asus device. For Lenovo, there are no guarantees. With the Nexus 7c, you get not only guaranteed updates but the greatest flexibility in rooting, switching ROMS, versions of Android. etc which is a good enough reason to prefer it even if it is less powerful. Rooting and ROMing will be harder with fewer choices for the other three

Another criterion is that the Xperia Z Ultra and the Nexus have conventional processors whereas some apps may not support Intel until future updates (Both the Fonepad and the S8 have Intel processors) But the Intel processors are more powerful.

In terms of battery life, the Nexus is a proven champion and the Fonepad is also likely to do really well because of the low-res screen The Xperia Z Ultra will give you 6 hours of on-screen time regardless of the level of use but don’t expect more. The Lenovo has average battery life(about 7-8 hours.

In terms of storage, all are equal with 80 gb of storage(using expandable memory) except the Nexus with 32 gb internal storage and no expandable memory.

Both the Xperia Z Ultra and Nexus have great touch and general ergonomics. They are also lighter being smaller and so better for extended sessions. They also have superb FHD Retina screens. The Lenovo S8 looks good and feels good in the hands(matte finish feels lovely to hold) but the touch is a little average. The S8 has a very attractive FHD screen but the Asus device is stuck on HD but that also means that gaming performance will be better as the graphics package has less work to do) But in touch and general ergonomics it will be very good as Asus typically do well in these areas.